NOTES ON SPATIAL-STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA -THE 1990s

Informal businesses used to be something that was only tolerated in the former black townships during the years of apartheid. Since then the informal business sector has become an integral part of the central business setup of cities in South Africa. It not only serves to widen the security net of t...

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Main Author: Hermanus S. GEYER
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Bucharest 2009-12-01
Series:Journal of Urban and Regional Analysis
Subjects:
Online Access:http://jurareview.ro/resources/pdf/volume_3_notes_on_spatial-structural_change_in_urban_south_africa_-the_1990s_abstract.pdf
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spelling doaj-5b1066cd5f7d4267859f5124887c55af2020-11-25T02:44:21ZengUniversity of BucharestJournal of Urban and Regional Analysis2067-40822068-99692009-12-01112739NOTES ON SPATIAL-STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA -THE 1990sHermanus S. GEYER0Stellenbosch University, South AfricaInformal businesses used to be something that was only tolerated in the former black townships during the years of apartheid. Since then the informal business sector has become an integral part of the central business setup of cities in South Africa. It not only serves to widen the security net of the urban poor in cities, it also represents the outcome of the democratization process in the country over the past fifteen years. Yet, there has been a tendency amongst local authorities to take steps to reduce the footprint of this sector in the urban environment in recent years. This trend ties in with the new approach of government to transform South African cities to become ’world class’ centres - a step that is aimed at making the cities more visually acceptable to visitors from abroad. In this paper an attempt is made to demonstrate the importance of the informal sector within the urban business makeup and to show what role it played in the spatial-structural evolution of the urban economies during the 1990s. The paper analyzes the structure of the urban business sector as a whole and structurally links the formal and informal sectors, demonstrating the importance of both sectors in the economic makeup of the cities. It analyses the structure of the informal sector and shows how different layers of the sector potentially relates to the formal urban sector. http://jurareview.ro/resources/pdf/volume_3_notes_on_spatial-structural_change_in_urban_south_africa_-the_1990s_abstract.pdfInformal sectorformal sectorbusiness anatomyeconomic structure.
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Hermanus S. GEYER
spellingShingle Hermanus S. GEYER
NOTES ON SPATIAL-STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA -THE 1990s
Journal of Urban and Regional Analysis
Informal sector
formal sector
business anatomy
economic structure.
author_facet Hermanus S. GEYER
author_sort Hermanus S. GEYER
title NOTES ON SPATIAL-STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA -THE 1990s
title_short NOTES ON SPATIAL-STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA -THE 1990s
title_full NOTES ON SPATIAL-STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA -THE 1990s
title_fullStr NOTES ON SPATIAL-STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA -THE 1990s
title_full_unstemmed NOTES ON SPATIAL-STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN URBAN SOUTH AFRICA -THE 1990s
title_sort notes on spatial-structural change in urban south africa -the 1990s
publisher University of Bucharest
series Journal of Urban and Regional Analysis
issn 2067-4082
2068-9969
publishDate 2009-12-01
description Informal businesses used to be something that was only tolerated in the former black townships during the years of apartheid. Since then the informal business sector has become an integral part of the central business setup of cities in South Africa. It not only serves to widen the security net of the urban poor in cities, it also represents the outcome of the democratization process in the country over the past fifteen years. Yet, there has been a tendency amongst local authorities to take steps to reduce the footprint of this sector in the urban environment in recent years. This trend ties in with the new approach of government to transform South African cities to become ’world class’ centres - a step that is aimed at making the cities more visually acceptable to visitors from abroad. In this paper an attempt is made to demonstrate the importance of the informal sector within the urban business makeup and to show what role it played in the spatial-structural evolution of the urban economies during the 1990s. The paper analyzes the structure of the urban business sector as a whole and structurally links the formal and informal sectors, demonstrating the importance of both sectors in the economic makeup of the cities. It analyses the structure of the informal sector and shows how different layers of the sector potentially relates to the formal urban sector.
topic Informal sector
formal sector
business anatomy
economic structure.
url http://jurareview.ro/resources/pdf/volume_3_notes_on_spatial-structural_change_in_urban_south_africa_-the_1990s_abstract.pdf
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